Fallen from Grace
by Crying Sorceress
Summary: [AU, OC] No matter how evil he has become, Kai is only human. He deserves a second chance. But who has the right to decide these things anyway? In the lands of magic, the war rages on. Fantasy. Love. Betrayal. War. Magic. R&R.
1. Far, Far Away

**Author's Notes**: Well, well. I have plot bunnies… a lot. This story will be short, sorta. Will include mature themes.

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AU. 

Has many concepts against the Bible and such.

Slight OOCness. Sorry about that.

**Fantasy/Romance/Suspense/ActionAdventure/Drama/Angst all in one.**

You can figure out the pairings later (:

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**Disclaimer: **for the whole story because I'm too lazy to post it up every chapter. Characters that you will recognize are copyrighted by the producers/creators/etc. of Beyblade. Everything else'sjust from my imagination (:

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_Her feelings she hides.  
Her dreams she can't find.  
She's losing her mind.  
She's fallen behind.  
She can't find her place.  
She's losing her faith.  
She's fallen from grace.  
She's all over the place._

-**Nobody's Home**, Avril Lavigne

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Fallen from Grace

**Part 1: Far, Far Away

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_There was land far, far away where the sun never set and where water never fell from the sky. The buildings were made out of the dirt._

_That other far, far away land was the land of ice, where the sun never showed its face and where it always snows._ _The floor was built with ice, cold, cold ice that never melted. The small amount of heat was supplied from the land of the fire._

_They were dependent of each other but they were mutual enemies._

_The two kings were born of the same family, only torn apart by greed of power. Each kingdom adopted the element of its king._

_The red-eyed one was the fire, burning with all desires across its kingdom, manifesting his great power over his dried land. _

_The blue-eyed one was the ice, freezing all lives and inviting the snow to fall upon it. The powers of the ice king were almost limitless._

_But between those two far, far away lands stood a country, a country of peace, and a country that had everything. Their prosperity was because of their use of both ice and fire to make water, the sign of life. The country also had vegetation, meat and provided all the nutrition to the lands of both fire and ice. They were the only ones who were intelligent enough to stop arguing and fighting all the time. _

_When the population of the middle land started increasing too rapidly as people moved in from both enemy lands, fights started between the occupation of land and debates about which far, far away land was better. The ancients of the middle land closed all its boundaries from further immigrants and limited the trade between the three lands as punishment. _

_Almost everything became peaceful._

_Of course, there will always be something wrong. The lands were made of magic, and magic always makes mistakes.

* * *

_

"Have you got the herb?"

"You stress too much, Ray," the person turned around, his slightly long blonde hair flowing in the soft breeze, "Tyson, did you find a summoner?"

"I could only find a beginner dancer, my deep apologies, Max," the male named Tyson replied. He ran his short fingers through his long but messy dark-blue hair, held in a thick ponytail. The bags under his eyes showed his tiredness.

"Then we only have her left, I guess," Max gave a disappointed look, "do not worry about it. We have been preparing for this too long to let it fall apart because of one person. We do not need a powerful summoner, she would do it."

"Oh, I am sure glad that you are on my side," Ray said, chuckling. The boy narrowed his eyes and tied a piece of cloth around his head, then took another piece and tied his thin black hair quickly. "We will wait for you to get her and I believe that Ozuma might come to our aid, too. He can help with the element fire, which we still lack."

"Oh, stop worrying!" came one last cry from the blonde boy before he ran out.

The ambience was somber, maybe it was the fact that only one candle lit the room. They didn't have lights back then, only the simple elements of the nature. Of course, fire was one of them.

Unfortunately, ice was one too.

There was a goblet, a very fancy one that contained tiny black rocks that had been collected and selected carefully. The gilded goblet reflected the small light emitted by the candle that seemed to be glowing with pride. Tyson took the candle carefully, not wanting to set the house of fire. Of course, back then, houses were made of branches and thick dry grass, supported by some simple magic. Strong enough to shelter a family of people. He tipped the candle over the black rocks. They went ablaze. The fire crackled and rose quickly. The air grew hotter. It was a part of the ritual.

The weather was never stable there. If one lord got angry, it really wasn't a pleasant feeling. You see, the fire was the heat, and the ice the cold. If the fire got angry, then it would be hot. If the ice was frustrated, snow would be falling. There was no regularity at all. But then…

"This a magical world," Tyson sighed as he closed eyes and concentrated.

He felt the cold winds blowing against his naked arms, meaning that the ice king must have been angry. He furrowed his eyes and stretched his arms, calling to what seemed the nothingness.

"Dragoon!"

In his mind, he could see it. A dragon, with heavy armor of a silver-blue color. It roared with ferocity and pride as it floated in midair. He sighed one last time before feeling the wind settling down. "Thank you, Dragoon."

"Feels a lot warmer now, Tyson," Ray remarked as he stood over a thin antique pamphlet. "I have found the incantations. Very odd ones, of course. What can we expect from these spell writers?" he sighed quickly and put his finger on the page, pointing at the text before nodding at himself. "Let us just hope that Mariam will be powerful enough."

"She is Max's mate, we can trust her. The most important part is not how much wind power she can get out of me but it is that we find the right people," Tyson replied as he opened his eyes slowly, his gaze unfocused.

There a high giggle and a head of blue hair. She bowed low and straightened her light brown dress. "You requested a summoner?"

"Yes, lady. Where is Ozuma?" Ray questioned.

"I heard my name," came a chuckle. A short boy with a light brown cloak appeared in the small house. He took off his cloak quickly and snickered. "Get it moving already."

Last, Max entered, his blonde hair messy and tainted with some sweat. He gave a quick but sincere smile to Mariam before eyeing at the pamphlet lying on a wooden table beside the golden goblet.

"Who shall draw the circle?"

Ray stepped voluntarily at the middle stretched out his arms. He closed his eyes and felt a jolt of electricity run through him. His two arms each drew a semi-circle. Sparks appeared in midair and shone brightly. Mariam nodded to herself before taking her place in the center on one side of the circle. Tyson stood on the other side, looking at Mariam through the circle.

Her movements were only made of grace and magic. Her arms formed ripples like the water and she swirled, performing the ritual of the summoner. Her feet tapped the ground, creating a rhythm and the bell anklets jingled. All the dancers and summoners had those. Those bell anklets that marked them. Then her arms, after being stretched out in front of her, came in front of her chest, where her hands clasped together. It seemed like she was praying.

"I summon Dragoon, dragon of the winds!"

The two quickly left the center, where a tornado was created.

"Quick! Stand in your positions!"

Mariam stepped quickly to the side and held the pamphlet for the males to read. The four formed a square, each on one corner.

"_Vertia_ _tou weylow_

_Shaque_ _bomis ventu_

_Nom capperel adi._"

The light replaced the wind; Ray felt his chest hurting as the spell took his energy to create the light. It was so calm, like some angel had soothed everyone. The great light didn't seem to vanish for a while, but with time, it gradually died away, like everything else eventually will.

* * *

"Hello? Hey! Oh damn that stupid wireless company, I hate my poor signals," came a low female voice. She shifted uncomfortably and her eyes widened in surprise. What she had been holding a second ago became nothing but ash. "My cell phone! What the—" 

"Aaah! Zen me—"

Ozuma waved his hand in midair and muttered a knowledge spell under his breath.

"—a light?" the second girl paused, frowning dramatically, "what language—wait, why am I speaking English? I don't speak English!"

"You are speaking the common tongue," Ray explained. "We have—"

"What have you done to my cell phone? Tell me, you sons of bitches! Where am I? I have a freaking job interview to get to!" the first girl cried in exasperation as she look at her handbag hanging on her shoulder.

"I believe that anything that existed in your world that does not exist in ours just… disappears," Mariam said, her hands on her waist as she shrugged.

"What world?" the second girl exclaimed. "Who are you?"

The first girl frowned as she heard dripping. She lowered her head to see black water falling by drops to the ground, she bit her bottom lip and knew where exactly it was from. She suddenly dropped her bag purposely and grunted.

"Great, so, let me guess, you guys don't have pens in this world but you have ink so my ink stays but everything else is turned into ashes? Who doesn't know what plastic is?" the first girl growled as she opened her bag to check her hypothesis. "Shit, more ash."

"First of all. Ladies, we should come to acquaintances first," Max suggested, "I am Tate, Max. I control the element of water, which is, in this place, quite rare." He pointed to his mate, Mariam, "that is Mariam, her profession is being summoner."

"My name is Kon Ray. I control the electricity. I am pleased of meeting you two," the black haired boy said, giving a nice hand gesture.

"Granger Tyson. Master of the winds," Tyson said simply as he gave a boyish grin.

"Chen BingHua. Er, university student," the second girl said, with the Asian complexities.

"Shahab Joanna. Amateur fashion designer," the first introduced herself. "And Chen something, you need a more common name," she paused and put her index finger in front of her lips as she turned to the Asian girl, "what about Brie? It begins with a 'B' too."

"Okay, whatever. So my name is Chen Brie," the new Brie muttered, shrugging.

"What does 'okay' mean?" Tyson inquired.

The two girls looked at each other with astonished expressions, both had their eyebrows cocked up showing the 'what the fuck' expression. Brie's black hair has been highlighted with a light brown, she had been trying to follow what had been in style, and her hair was straightened. The thin layer of her black hair fell to her ears and a little past them, reaching her pointed chin. She wore a simple light blue skirt trailing past her knees and comfortable leather sandals that were loosely strapped. Her eyes were a very dark and common brown among the Chinese. Her small nose and thin lips didn't stand out well against her slightly tanned skin. Beside her, Joanna wore a stylish but formal white blouse, the collar straight and perfectly in place. The buttons were of a silver color and over the blouse, she wore a dark gray suit-jacket with a rather big breast pocket. Her bottoms consisted of dressy pants, also dark gray in color. Her shoes consisted of high heel black ones, comfortable but very presentable. Her skin was of something much darker than Brie's because of her half-Egyptian complexions. Her dark brown hair was tied in a thick braid that arrived to the middle of her back.

"We are definitely in a different world now," Joanna muttered. "Don't you just love it? I guess that we're the only normal ones here, Brie." She turned to Brie and gave a pitiful look. Brie could only give a confused expression back, she had no clue what was going either.

"Ladies—"

"It's Brie, I guess, that's my new name," the Chinese shrugged then looked at Joanna, "no one calls me lady and I don't want that to change. Calling us by our names is only common."

"But nothing is common anymore for us, is it? Tell us, what kind of world is this?" Joanna asked, as she was always the one who believed in fantasies.

"I guess, that this is a world where three kingdoms exist—" Max started.

"—and right now, you are in the middle kingdom, the most peaceful one—" Ozuma continued.

"—the other two are ruled by tyrants, legend says that they are family but torn apart—" Mariam knew the story, too. Everyone did.

"—by greed. But this world is not all bad. We are good. We are the peaceful country," Ray said, pausing.

Tyson stayed quiet, until he gave a casual grin. "This is a world full of magic."

"But magic is all about faeries and elves and—" Brie started.

"No. It certainly is not. We brought you here by magic," Max explained. "And now we need to see if they have betrayed us."

"Who are they? What betrayal?" Joanna asked, annoyed and curious at the same time.

"No further questions," Ray said, frowning.

"My head hurts," Ozuma said, rolling his eyes.

"Calm down. You each need to take a test now," Tyson finished, as he gritted his teeth a little. _No matter how evil he has become, Kai is only human. He deserves a second chance.

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**Author's Notes: **In this fic, Tala & Kai are both of the same importance. And no, I'm not leading to a Ray/OC with a Chinese OC. It's not what you think. **Drop a review!** That was a short prologue thing. Next chapter will be up in about 2 weeks and will be 3 pages longer, hopefully.


	2. The Start of Some Journey

**Author's Notes: **Okay, I lied. I can't write long chapters anymore, it's way too tedious. Thanks to Hikari Konoshiro and AnimeGirl329 for reviewing. It's odd, I have more alerts than reviews. I donno, if you guys don't like this fic then I'll probably be lazy and never update this.

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**Fallen From Grace**

**Part 2: The Start of Some Journey**

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_"There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth...not going all the way, and not starting."_

-Gautama Siddharta**  
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"What test?" Brie yelled, over and over again, feeling that she was about to be stripped of her rights about privacy (not that she had many in China, but not that she cared) but enough to make her feel vulnerable. _Like those doctor exams_.

Ray and Ozuma lead the way, approaching to the center of the village, where ironically was rather abandoned. Brie wasn't in the humor at all to snicker; she groaned morosely and wrinkled her small nose. She glanced at Joanna, whose brown hair seemed a little lighter in the sunlight. Brie always wanted lighter hair, that's why she dyed it but that was the only way, she wished that it was naturally brown. _Chinese heritages_, she groaned to herself and cast a glance towards a pile of dried straws. _Stop Brie, _she told herself, _stop thinking about looks. There's something wrong here. You've no clue where you are! Stop thinking about such foolish things, you know better. What has dad taught you about illogical gits? You're smart, Brie, don't think about looks and such. Come on_.

Joanna looked as confused as her, so she felt a little relieved, but not much. She was the pessimistic person, seemingly cheerful on the outside but nervous and panics and breaks down easily. It was also hard to recover for her, which was horrible because she often got hurt.

Ozuma stood above the pile of dry straws and stacked them well so that one batch sat on top of another, pretty orderly.

"Tyson," he let out, rather as an annoyed grumble, "you better control the wind, the weather is not supportive—"

"Hey, Ozuma, right?" Joanna started, "do you think that you can cast another spell, you know, like how you made Brie speak English," Brie gave an awkward glance towards the speaker, "do you think that you can make yourself speak like us… or at least like me?"

There was a weird pause and Ozuma cocked an eyebrow, confused, and stretched his arms out, made some rather symmetrical movements. "I donno if I did much."

"Oh you did!" Joanna exclaimed. "You spoke _my _English!"

"Okay… sure," Tyson rolled his eyes. "I'll control the winds."

_He said 'okay'_, Brie gave a subtle grin, _I guess that the spell is working_.

Ozuma and Ray had their arms stretched over the pile of straw, commanding their elements while concentrating, furrowing their eyes.

Suddenly, the pile of straws went ablaze and Tyson went to the work, using his wind to trap the fire into some certain space.

"Come on!" Max exclaimed, "what are you waiting for?"

"What are _we _supposed to do?" Brie asked back, annoyed, "we can't do magic."

"The initiation process, duh," Mariam continued. "Come on, I'll show you guys."

_She called us guys?_ Brie shook her head to herself, _must be some kind of English stuff_.

Mariam took Brie's arms and led her closer to the fire. The girl winced at the intense heat and took a step back. But to her protests, Mariam still dragged her closer. Finally, Mariam gave a jerk on Brie's arm.

She felt fire tickle her hand, it wasn't exactly a painful feeling at first but as she withdrew her hand with instinct, then it started to hurt. She gawked, her eyes wide open and speechless. She gave a glance towards Joanna, who had taken several steps backwards in fear.

"What the fuck are you doing…," came Joanna's voice, weak for the first time since Brie met her; because the girl was so normally fierce.

The pain stopped spreading and Brie bit her lip. She was pretty immune to pain ironically, but only physical ones. Brie turned her palm over, so that she could take a look at it.

There a circle engraved into it, with flame. She let out a wince of pain, just at the sight of it but it really looked worse than it was.

"What is… that?" Joanna took a small step forward, drawn by curiosity. She peeked over Brie's shoulder, as the Egyptian girl was taller in height. "A circle?"

The two girls waited for a response from the residents of that world, as they both wanted to know the answer. Tyson dramatically gulped down some saliva and shook his head.

"We've got one healer, let's just hope that the other one will be a summoner or, even better, a magnifier," Max looked at Mariam and nodded to her. Joanna gave an exasperated look to Mariam as she approached.

"You're not gonna make me touch that fire, are you? I have arsonphobia," Joanna bit her bottom rather forcefully and trembled a little. "You know… fear of fire?"

"Sorry," Mariam paused, offering her hand. "I can help you…," she looked pitifully at Joanna, "I'll try at least. You have to learn to trust people around here. We won't bite."

Joanna gave a roll of her eyes, "But the fire does." She closed her eyes and nodded to Mariam, knowing that the girl would see it. She felt Mariam's gentle hands on her shoulders, pushing her to the fire, closer and closer as she felt the warmth. Joanna opened one eye, scared but very funny, or so Brie thought. _Peekaboo_. Joanna opened the other eye and stared at the center of the fire, stunned. Her hand was approaching the fire and she gave a quick sigh before putting it into the flame.

She quickly stepped back, with the help of Mariam, but almost tripping backwards. Brie gave a sincere smile; Joanna had not reacted much differently than she had. Brie approached Joanna from the behind, tiptoeing to see what has been engraved over her new friend's hand. _She's my friend… in this weird situation, anyone not trying to kill me would be my friend. I can't ask for loyalty._

On Joanna's hand was engraved an X, definitely not symmetric but very straight, as if a blade had made two cuts in her palm.

Max's jaw dropped and Tyson grinned mischievously.

"Yes!" they both exclaimed at the same time.

"We've got ourselves a dancer," Ray explained, happy himself but he could hide it, not very well but at least he did not scream.

"What's a dancer?" Brie asked, her finger on her lips, looking like a curious child.

Then it was Tyson's and his friends' turn to sweat drop.

* * *

"Tea?" came Mariam's voice as she stepped into the miniature kitchen (as it contained only a pot over a fire at the time).

"Sure," Brie gave a mumble and glanced around her.

They were in a different house, probably in Max's because Mariam felt so comfortable there. But Brie didn't know, she just tried to find a place to sit down. There were several wooden chairs around a weak-looking table. Some dried up flowers stood in a porcelain vase in the center of the table. Brie gave a sigh, everything looked dead around there.

"You guys have gin? Or vodka?" Joanna paused, desperate as Max shook his head, no way what she was talking about, "whiskey?"

"What are those?" Tyson asked, taking a seat near Brie.

"Alcohol," Joanna answered. Brie shook her head to herself.

"You shouldn't drink alcohol," she said, worried.

"I'm sorry, I tried, but it relieves stress," Joanna wiped her hand across her forehead, and gave a pitiful look, only, Brie guessed, the pity was for herself.

"There's beer, but… they're all traded into the two other countries," Tyson explained. "The kings there drink," he stuck his tongue out, "a lot."

Brie frowned; she hated alcohol mostly because her stomach and lungs couldn't take the substance. She had tried it once but ended up with an oxygen mask because she couldn't breathe as she was choking to death. Mariam brought seven cups of tea, steam rising from the cups. She placed the cups in front of the people and sat down on Max's lap quietly.

"So," Ray started, "I bet that you want to know what's going on."

Joanna gave him a glare and she shook her head. "Duh."

"Those signs on your palms, they're normal," Ray continued. He showed his palm and a rectangle, the width half as short as the length, was engraved into it. "I'm a magician, with only a little magnifier ability." He pointed to Ozuma, "Ozuma has much more magnifier abilities. Max there is full magician as there is not much water around here. Tyson there is half-half as he can control wind and magnify elements. It's really handy."

"Actually, I started out as a magnifier," Tyson started, "but sometime, magnifiers can only control earth or wind because normally that's all that you can touch," he waved his hand around in mid-air, "see I can control wind well because there's so much around us. Max wouldn't be a magnifier because there's seriously no water around here," he scratched his head, "so you guys better get used with no water around."

"Hey, it's okay. I've lived in Algeria for several years so I'm used to the desert," Joanna snickered, glancing at Max for a moment.

"Whatever," Brie shrugged, "I don't care."

"By the way," Ozuma grinned, "you guys can hope that your symbols change. They might, in serious conditions. The circle is the healer. The perfect square is the magnifier. Rectangles are magicians. Dancer, which is the pre-stage of a summoner, is a non-symmetric 'X' while the summoner is a perfect 'X'." He paused and pointed to Mariam, "see, only females can be summoners because they have to dance," he gave a snicker. "Don't expect guys to dance."

"Yeah, what he said," Ray continued, his hand retying the piece of cloth around his head, "magnifiers can be both females and males, but most of the time, it's males and also very powerful people. Mainly because they can do a lot of magic, whatever elements they touch, they can control. The normal magician is only male because it's balanced, so that males have a special profession. Last but not least, the healers, which include both genders." He took a long breath, looking around him. The sky was a bit darker than before but not much darker. _One_ and _a half _sun was still in sight.

Brie took the time to take a look out of the tiny window, which was not covered by glass because glass was a thing of luxury.

"There are two suns?" Brie cocked an eyebrow, "say, are there two moons?"

"How can there two moons?" Mariam exclaimed, "you're weird. Of course, there are three moons because moons are much smaller in size than suns." She paused, "besides, the fire country has no moons but the ice one has two moons and no sun."

Brie shook her head to herself and sighed. _Why is this stupid world so different? Is this even a planet? I mean, how big are the moons? This planet must be huge to able to keep three moons in orbit! And how in hell is it supposed to revolve around two suns?_

"I hate being in physics major, I should have listened to my mom and left physics for my brother," she grumbled, closing her eyes quickly and blew some loose bangs away from her eyes. She didn't know why but it seems that the time that they've been there, _probably 5 hours_, she thought, seemed much longer. Even hair seemed to have grown longer. _I'm just imagining things_, she told herself.

"So how do days work here?" Joanna asked, giving an unsure smile.

"Thirty hours in one day, twelve dedicated to complete sleep. In winter we have much more sleep but," Tyson paused, "well, winter and summer really depends on the day because it changes everyday, and well, for the past week, it has kept changing by the hour." Joanna seemed to give him a weird look. Brie agreed with the girl, it seemed completely absurd.

"Well, I do like the fact that I get to sleep," Brie commented, "I used to sleep 4 hours a day—"

"How do you _do _that?" Ray exclaimed, surprised. Brie arched an eyebrow up a little.

"I go to university and it's quite hard being a full-time student, especially being a female physics major, all the guys are sexist." No one interrupted Brie when she spoke but she wished that they did because, with the exception of Joanna, no one had the clue what in hell she was talking about. "Never mind."

Max nodded to himself and wrapped his arm around Mariam's neck and shoulders and Brie noticed Mariam whisper something. But she couldn't decipher what. _And they have to keep secret to themselves_.

"We better get going," Tyson looked up to the sky, "it's nighttime."

"What--?" Joanna exclaimed, looking at the bright sun outside the window.

But suddenly, clouds came clashing together and covered the sunlight. As soon as they came, snow began falling from the skies.

"How did you know that?" Joanna continued.

"He's a wind magician, of course," Ozuma shrugged giving them what would be called the 'duh' expression.

"Yes," Max started, "come on Mariam. See you guys, Tyson, Ray, Ozuma."

"Where are you going?" Joanna asked, it seemed like she was shaking, but Brie couldn't tell much.

"Nowhere… we are home," Mariam gave a hearty chuckle. "Oh yes, you guys should go to Tyson's."

Brie's jaw dropped. "What? Why?" She felt like she was being rude but the thought of sleeping in a _completely _new world and spending the _first _night in some _guy_'s house wasn't such a great idea.

"Because he has the biggest cabin," Ozuma drank the last of his tea and coiffed his messy black-and-red hair with his fingers.

"Cabin?" It was Joanna's time to be in awe, bad awe. "Like toilet cabins?"

"No… straw cabins?" Tyson said, unsure. "A home? Shelter? Well, you can sleep outside if you want," he gave a shrug.

"Fine, fine," Joanna cut in. Brie wanted to giggle badly. The Egyptian girl looked so desperate and she pouted.

"Why don't you guys have some kind of 'magical' houses? Straw is so old fashioned," Brie spoke out, "why wouldn't you try concrete?"

"What's concrete?"

Brie didn't even bother to look who was speaking, but she was pretty sure that it was Tyson, it seemed like he was the one who was curious about everything. _He seems like a very strong person too_.

"Where's home?"

"Follow me," Tyson gave a grin and led the way through the snow.

Brie looked around her, the pure white snowflakes falling abundantly, already forming a thick layer of frost on the muddy floor. She grinned. She always loved snow and from Tyson's face, she could tell that he did too. _Maybe he just enjoys the wind, I mean, he is a wind magician after all_. She chuckled to herself, earning a strange look from Joanna. _This is going to be just great_. Surprisingly, Brie wasn't being _that _sarcastic.

She saw Joanna open her mouth and catch a clean snowflake with her tongue. It melted so quickly. Brie looked away, her glance landing on her own hands, shivering suddenly. It was getting really cold outside, but she kept walking. _If she's adjusting to here, I can too_.

* * *

The sun shone hard on her eyes, she gave a great yawn and shook her head, her short highlighted hair flowing. She slept in a hard bed, harder than even those beds in China, surprisingly. Beside her, Joanna seemed to have gotten a hard time falling asleep. Her wool blanket had been wrinkled badly and wrapped around her legs. Brie gave a chuckle.

From the kitchen, Tyson stepped in, dressed in what seemed like a potato sack.

"Do you guys have any taste?" Joanna mumbled, rubbing her eyes, barely awake.

"I don't know if I taste like anything…," Tyson cocked an eyebrow. Joanna sweat dropped. He stretched his fingers, it seemed, and closed his eyes for a moment. Several bowls appeared, floating in the air. Brie let out a sharp gasp, astonished.

"What?"

"Breakfast," Tyson paused, "before you get going."

"Where are we going?" Joanna exclaimed, looking at the bowls filled with some white gooey looking liquid. "What is that?"

Brie looked at the spoon placed in the bowl and stirred the liquid, recognizing it as what her grandmother used to prepare sometimes. "It's plain white rice porridge," she replied to Joanna question, but she had no answer to the first question. She wanted to know where they were going too. And why they were there. Here. Whatever.

"I thought that you would realize it already, I guess that they didn't send us smart aliens," Tyson rolled his eyes, ignoring the disgusted glare coming from Joanna. Brie wasn't sure what Joanna was bothered by the most, having to eat the tasteless porridge or being called dumb. "You're coming with me and Mariam to help Kai," Tyson closed his eyes, "and obviously Max will have to come with us too, he'll never leave Mariam alone. We need to cure the king there. And I have some unfinished business with him."

"Who's the king?" Joanna asked, somewhat still disgusted at the porridge.

Brie only listened half-heartily to their conversation, not that interested. She ate the porridge in silence. She didn't care where she was going. She liked helping people, a lot.

"His name is Kai. His old name was, at least," Tyson gave a careless shrug, but Brie could somewhat tell that he wasn't careless at all; he cared about that king. Then, the black haired boy turned to Brie, noticing that she hasn't spoken a bit for a while. "And you're going to the ice country. I believe that Ray is going with you, and Ozuma will too."

Brie gave a pitiful smile and looked at Joanna. The Egyptian girl looked back, disappointed by the news.

"Goodbye, _oh_, the **only** source of civilization in this world," Joanna sighed dramatically and wiped her forehead, acting.

Brie chuckled, she didn't know why she did. It was quite a sad moment indeed. They were _probably_ the only two Earthlings there anyway.

"Don't start crying," Tyson added. "The journey will only take a few days. Ray had the chance to find some _lameks_ while you were sleeping. They can travel up to 4000 kilometers per day."

Brie was in awe. "What are these _lameks_? That must be a prodigious invention!" she paused, doing some quick calculations in her head. "You have thirty hours in a day… so that's more than 100 kilometers in an hour! That's great. What kind of fuel do you use, maybe I could use the same for my project—"

"Fuel?" Tyson exclaimed, no clue what she was talking about. "_Lameks_ are animals. What is fuel?"

"Oh, sorry," Brie gave a faint blush, "I am study engines and such in university—"

"Oh, cut the crap," Joanna cut in, "no offense." Brie gave a courteous nod, not minding Joanna's snappy temper. "This place maybe isn't _that _uncivilized after all!"

It seemed like stars sparkled in her eyes.

Tyson gave a chuckle. "You'll like it here. Even though the weather changes a lot," suddenly, the sky was covered with dark clouds, but, as quickly as they came, they disappeared, Tyson shook his head to himself, "see, it's because of the kings so if we can fix this, everything will be perfect. Anyway, let's go."

"Yes, let's go."

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Um, I've watched like five episodes of Avatar, but I guess that this "world" that I've created kinda resembles to the Avatar one, but they are yet completely different. It's confusing. But um, I donno about Final Fantasy because I never played that game. R&R, thanks. 


	3. Powerless

**Author's Notes: **Expect some OOCness and lots fantasy, slavery, exaggeration, war and other concepts.

* * *

**Fallen from Grace**

**Part 3: Powerless**

* * *

The journey was interesting. In a bad way, that is.

She saw life disappearing little by little, replaced with the sandy ground and suffocating gusts of hot wind. Not only was the wind hot, it carried a veil of sand, blinding them. It was bad enough that Tyson had refused to "waste" –as he said—his energy to block some (what he considered) "harmless breeze" but she also had to travel with Mariam _and _Max. The lovey pair. It wasn't pleasant at all.

"Ugh, I should stop PMSing," she stirred the _lamek_. At least the beast wasn't that bad to ride on. Except that it just _had _to make some weird loud noise every two minutes. _Here we go again_.

The journey didn't take long, or so it seemed. No conversation was needed, except the affectionate murmurs between Max and Mariam that is. They were so sweet that it was _sickening_. Worse than a cheesy romance flick, those that girls would watch just to annoy boys at a party. Joanna really pitied Tyson for once, but when she looked at the boy, he didn't seem to mind. His dark blue hair waved in the gust and an insecure smile hung on his face. But not too much worry was there; just an insecure smile. Joanna couldn't imagine Tyson as the quiet one, as he wasn't the quietest one when she met him. But he seemed to change a lot since the beginning of the journey.

"A penny for your thoughts," she stirred the _lamek_ towards the boy.

"My thoughts?" he gave a lighthearted chuckle. "What's a penny?" she gave a strange stare in return. He gave a small nod. "I was just thinking about the new kingdom, the fire kingdom. I used to know the king, he was a great friend, somewhat, and …" he lifted his arm to create a wind barrier, "I, just, miss him." He looked down a smiled. Joanna took the cue to approach him more, in the same time taking advantage of his barrier.

"It's hard to lose close friends, I know," she paused, "my dad was a volunteer doctor, well, healer, you call it here. He traveled from one place to another within days to help those who couldn't afford healing."

"Oh, that's great!" Tyson exclaimed, he gave a grin, "there's people like that at our Middle Kingdom too. But I'm not sure about the fire land, it's so different. But," he didn't look down this time, "all the same, there are very nice people here. Very nice…"

He looked up and his eyes widened. "We're here!"

"How do you know?" she glanced forward, seeing nothing but sand, "wait, is that—"

"The flag of fire," Tyson finished for her. The boy gave a glance at the couple traveling with them and gave them a gesture.

"That flag… it's so noticeable against the sand," she murmured to herself.

"Yes, it's used to signal things. When the flag is black, it means that the kingdom isn't accepting visitors. But the red means that they're welcoming travelers."

She felt something knock against her feet before seeing Max and Mariam approaching them.

"What's the plan, Tyson?" Max's blonde hair seemed to turn into a sandy color and blended in with the background.

"Max you take care of Mariam and Joanna and find a way for them to go in the castle. It's going to be hard but if we're lucky they host feasts every two weeks and invite many dancers and summoners to go perform," Tyson gave a serious look to Joanna, "and you have to make him notice you in the crowd of girls. Don't try being pretty because they're all pretty. Try to be different."

"But I—" Joanna was cut off once again.

"If you need my help, just find me. I'm going to see Kai, we have something to settle."

"Tyson," Max gave an all-knowing look, "I think that I should go with you. Water has much more advantage over fire and if you need to settle something with the fire king, you'll need much power."

"No, the girls need you more and besides, I have Dragoon. He's all that I need," he grinned. He raised his arm and shooed them. "Go, go. I'll wait a while to enter the gates. I don't want the guards to get suspicious."

Before she was given any time to react, she felt a tug and her _lamek_ followed Max and Mariam's, trotting to the newfound kingdom.

"Why is Tyson just waiting there?"

Mariam looked at Joanna and shushed her. "You'll know later on. The only thing that you have to worry about is to get Kai's attention sometime soon. That way, you'll get in the palace."

"Palace? Kai?"

"Don't you know anything?"

Joanna snorted. "I'm not stupid. But I'm new to ...," she glanced around, and extended her arms, "this."

It must have been night suddenly because she could see the torches lighting up. The air was a little cooler but the dirt underneath their feet was still hot like lava. Joanna had already gotten her toes burned just because she stepped on the innocently cracked ground.

The fire land was _beautiful_. It was amazing how such an oasis was hidden within the desert.

Well, it was an oasis with not much water.

"How do they live?" Joanna groaned, her throat dry and yearning for something to drink.

"They get all the water from us, the middle country," Max explained. "I think that they're plain stupid. They could make water on their own by melting ice but they're too stupid to cooperate with the other country." Max finished, whispering.

"What's wrong with the ice country?" Joanna spluttered.

Silence.

Joanna didn't feel anything wrong so she continued. "Fire and ice aren't that different."

She ignored the nudge that Mariam gave her. But she couldn't ignore two half-naked dark skinned and very intimidating guys standing in front of her.

"You!" one hollered, wearing a green what-seemed-like-a-skirt. Joanna snorted. "You insult us!"

"I do?" Joanna batted her eyelashes prettily and grunted. "Insults, my arse."

"Please excuse her, dear comrades, this girl here knows not better," Max spoke quickly while bowing.

"What _are _you talking about?" Joanna fumed.

It was quiet all around them. People who were standing around the marketplace suddenly disappeared, leaving all the shops and stands unsupervised. _What's going on?_

"Show your palm."

"Excuse me?" Joanna choked. She felt Mariam nudge again. "Fine, fine."

One of the tall bulky men looked at the engraving on her palm and put on a smirk.

"We have a prisoner dancer. One less little prostitute running around, one less problem for us," he said to his _friend_.

"Agreed. We have a place for you in the palace."

Max looked astonished but Joanna couldn't tell whether it was good or not. After all... he did want her to get in the palace right? This could be her chance.

"Alright. I'm all yours."

Immediately, she felt all the stares on her, like she has done something horribly wrong.

Actually, she did.

"No. No, don't listen to her, gentlemen," Max glared at the girl, "she knows not of your traditions."

"You are visitors?" It sounded more like a statement.

As she felt Mariam tug on her sleeve again, Joanna took some steps back. When she finally realized how stubborn she was, she began to fear the big-bellied monsters, aka guards. She was so inferior size-wise and she was pretty sure that the blades that hung from their greased belts would do more damage than a fist.

"That is not an excuse."

Before she could decipher what was happening, her stomach crushed against one tall guy's shoulders. Her body felt like it was bent in half, hanging from a metal bar. She was being carried away and there was nothing to do about it. Max couldn't afford attacking the soldiers as he would get in trouble but Mariam looked fierce, her emerald eyes blazing. But nothing could be done.

"Let me go!"

They didn't.

She felt like a prisoner, she was a prisoner. And after minutes of attempting to kick the guy's head, she slowly gave up. Her efforts were ignored. She felt like everything was going to end.

Little by little, the temperature increased and she realized that they were truly approaching the castle, not some prison that she feared.

Her body ached from traveling and the fact that they threw her into a crowded room didn't help. She looked around her, confused and lost, only to find about fifty girls staring back at her. They all rolled their eyes prettily and looked away as they realized that it was just another dancer.

"Hey... where am I?" she was ignored.

It wasn't like in those stories she read, where at least one nice girl out of the crowd of prisoners would come up to her and ask her for her name and attempt to make friends. They all stood there, looking at themselves and arranging their hair like Japanese women arranged flowers. They oiled their hair strand by strand with lavender scented gel and smashed powder onto their dark cheeks to lighten their skin. She gulped. They looked like... prostitutes.

She stared at their clothes but they were normal, consisting of cheap linen, silk and cotton pieced together. Long trailing dresses hung from their frail bodies, they looked like they haven't eaten for days just to look pretty.

So they were prostitutes. But they looked intimidating.

Suddenly the door opened again, earning a few glances from the girls.

A dark skinned and shriveled man stepped in and threw some pieces of rags at Joanna. Some random girl clung herself to him, almost smirking as he looked into her eyes and gave a sigh of pity. He dragged her away.

The others started murmuring: "How lucky! Next man is mine."

Before Joanna could find any answers, she felt her body pushed against others. She dropped the clothing that the man handed her and walked with the crowd, no clue where they were heading. The palace was grand. The walls were built of dirt and supported by magic. Everyone seemed to dismiss the fact that it was burning hot seeing as they wore long dresses that reached their feet but Joanna felt like she was suffocating, unable to breathe through the sand and dirt that lingered in the air.

They went through a sort of tunnel, so dark that it almost felt chilly; she wanted to stay there forever. As they came to a clearing, the heat flashed again. Beads of sweat rolled down her forehead so she used her sleeves to wipe it clean. Several girls stared at her in disgust, like she was some sort of lowlife peasant and they separated from her. Joanna tried to not notice the looks that she got as they stepped into the spacious room. It was so grand but so empty. The floor was tiled with marble and the ceiling that reached the sky was so high up that she couldn't tell where it ended. The walls were decorated with flags of red and yellow. The room smelled of burning tea leaves, like some ritual was just performed.

Her eyes were widened as she spotted a familiar person sitting on an elevated platform. She was about to run to him and embrace him, she was so scared but she just realized that...she didn't know him well either. There was no one that she knew here. The black haired boy Tyson stared at her and gave a careful nod, telling her that it wasn't time yet. Joanna forced a smile back and looked around, only to find that all the other girls had already walked to a carpeted stage in the middle of the room. She flushed and glided to the stage. She couldn't blend in with them; she didn't wear the clothes that the man had handed her. She gulped and trembled. Her clothes of brown and green stood out against the red, orange and yellow.

Suddenly the girls started moving, in a movement that she didn't think was possible. They seemed to be floating as their grace could beat anything that she has ever seen before. And Joanna had seen so much of grace as she worked with models and fashion but never has she seen such a dance. She couldn't even follow a step.

It was an art, one that she was scared that she could never learn. She stared back at Tyson, who tried to ignore her to not draw too much suspicion so he closed his eyes and stared back at her from the corner of his eyes. Joanna let her eyes trail to her surroundings, nervous as she tried to get out of the way of the dancers but her leg was glued to the ground. Soon, she created a tangled mess of bodies as the other girls tripped over her. She felt embarrassed as she tried to crawl out of the pile of bodies before every single dancer fell on her. But her attempts were useless. The dancers fell one after another like dominos and soon, the weight on her was unbearable. She screamed. Loud. Piercing.

Tyson came to her aid.

A blast of wind relieved her from the weight as the girls were slowly lifted into the air, giving Joanna enough time to escape. She crawled on her knees shamefully and stood up. Dusting her heavy skirt, she gave a thankful look towards Tyson only to find him glaring angrily at her. She wanted to die.

It seemed that time froze as Tyson slowly let the other girls down to the ground. The dancers whispered to each other and once again Joanna felt left out. Then she saw a silhouette standing next to Tyson, the figure even taller than the boy. Joanna was scared. Was this another guard?

Quickly, every single person in the room bowed down. Even Tyson stepped in front of the figure and bowed so low that he could have kissed the marble floor. Joanna gave a grunt in disgust and started lowering her head. Her legs were so weak that she could barely support herself. It was impossible to kneel down and bow but when she found the person walking towards down, she wished that she had died instead.

His skin was much lighter than the others' because he never lived the physical hardships of working in the sun. It was obvious that he was of a higher class. His hair a color of death blended with a cold blue. His face seemed to be tainted with certain wisdom and his clothing made him look much older than he was. But he was so handsome, drool worthy, and worthy to be royalty.

_Shit. This is the king_. She mentally slapped herself as she tried to lower herself slowly but unfortunately for her, she could feel everyone's subtle glares on her back so she couldn't help but to collapse on her knees. _Thunk_! Damn.

"Ow!" Her cry echoed in the hot room.

She felt like the joints in her knees fell apart as they crashed against the floor. She rubbed her knees in exasperation and sweated like a pig. The king glided towards her, as graceful as the dancers and stared into her orbs. She lowered her head in shame and tried to back away. No words were exchanged.

Joanna felt a force on her head, dirty and taunting.

Her heart roared and her nostrils flared. She immediately lifted her head, ignoring the fact that the king was stepping on her head to make her bow to him. Who did he think he was? Just because he was royalty! That son of a bitch!

"You!" she fumed, glaring him straight into his orbs, wishing that she had some magical powers but nothing happened.

Instead, the king moved his legs and her eyes widened. She felt it contact with the side of her head before her consciousness slipped away. He kicked her hard, right into the skull.

Why, Kai?

* * *

_...transition..._

* * *

The soft chilly breeze became a tempest, a hurricane, a roaring whiter tiger.

Brie shivered to her bones, wrapping the thick woolen blanket around her. The night had fallen but there were no stars. Instead, three lonely moons flew in the sky, moving little by little. She knew not where they were going but wherever it was, she hoped that it was just a little warmer.

Ray's powers had diminished as thunder required both fire and air to exist. The land was cold, the ground covered with ice that seemed unbreakable. It was skating season all year long and they were all surprised that anyone could survive at all.

"Ray," she muttered, "why didn't you go the other way? To the other country?" Her words were soft and caring, a friend's words.

"I feel like it is necessary for me to come here. I need to find an old friend," he replied back, trying to smile but his attempts failed.

Even Ozuma, who seemed so fiery at first, looked down in desperation.

Brie was absolutely impressed with the _lameks_. Sure, they were a pain to ride but their hunger was so little that camels looked useless beside them. They had ridden for days, it seemed, and the _lameks_ hadn't eaten a single thing yet.

She wished that she could survive like that... every day without provisions, without the need of love and yearning of lust. It was so hard, not only as the only girl in her university to study engineering but really being treated like a weakling. The males all regarded her as a fragile vase, mocking her. All her friends studied _feminine _things, some rare ones learned of architecture and chemistry but most were in literature majors or art history researchers.

And now that she was in this world, she discovered how truly divided they were too. Even though Ray and Ozuma were close friends, they rarely conversed amongst each other. Ozuma, as Brie later discovered, was actually a blend of magnifier, magician and healer and his role never matched with Ray because of his healer personalities. But at least they found some topics to discuss, like how much power they could draw from nature – which Brie thought was the worst subject to gossip on _ever_. With her, however, neither of them could find interesting things to talk about because they were all so different. The only conversations that Brie shared with them was about their world, how magic worked and why the war started. And already, she has heard the story so many times.

"Is someone waiting for you there?"

"Yeah," the dark haired boy turned away. "I've written to her many times and she's like my other half."

Brie gave a sweet smile in return. "Soul mates, huh?"

"Maybe."

"That's pretty great. I'm happy for you."

"Thanks," Ray looked at Ozuma, sitting across him and ignoring the two. "I guess that I'm just lucky." He paused and started whispering. "Ozuma had a loved one too. He lost her in the war, that's why he hates it and his healer abilities became more influential. He became more defensive after her death. You see, great events change your heart, the way you act and think so your role changes too," he turned back to Brie and spoke louder again, "you are a healer, meaning you are calculating, smart, passive and defensive. Dancers are more outgoing," Brie sniggered, thinking about Joanna, "and more aggressive. Magnifiers are one with the nature and are able to blend in. Magicians live off of power, like me, and we enjoy the sense of danger."

Brie swayed her head to the side and rested her back on a hard rock. There was no way that she could sleep that way. The weather was unbearable and there was no bed to sleep upon. "I have a feeling that I'm not destined to be a healer," she murmured.

"Maybe," Ray replied. He glanced at Ozuma and shook his head. "Ozuma was never destined to be a healer. He was a great magnifier, able to work with both earth and fire but look what happened to him."

"I'm very sorry for him."

"We can never be sorry enough. I hope that no one goes through what he survived. He fell from grace."

Brie looked at her feet, stuck in the little tennis shoes that she wore. They were one of the last things that remained from Earth. That sounded weird, like her heart wasn't from Earth either. She suddenly felt like she belonged there, like she had a role. She wasn't just another girl in a university, fighting the sexual segregation. She felt important for once. If these guys waited for Joanna and her to arrive and end the war then she was sure that her image would be gilded too and spoiled with pride.

But as she felt the uncomfortable materials of the shoe tickle her numb feet, she thought about Earth again. And about Ozuma. He fell from grace. Heroes all fall. Then maybe she will too. She looked up into the biggest of the three moons, reflecting a light blue aura. She gazed into the unknown, fearing the future.

A sudden cold wind blew over her frozen face and she closed their eyes. They were so close to the Ice Country already and her fall from grace has already begun.

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Gahh. This took me such a long time to write, sorry! I know that this story doesn't get lots of reviews but I really enjoy writing this. Leave a review, please, and tell me what you want me to change. :)

Yes I exaggerated all that stupid sexism in China. It exists but only for the older people. And I know that Japanese don't arrange flowers for fun. Stereotypes are good to use.


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